re: On this day 157 years ago, William T. Sherman presented Savannah, GA to Lincoln...

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If it was a bout slavery then why couldn't the North free them before the war?

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Because the only way you could have ended slavery and freed the slaves prior to the Civil War was a constitutional amendment. Such an amendment would require two-thirds of the House, Senate, and individual states to ratify. There was no way that was happening and you're a fool if you think otherwise.

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By any modern definition, a war criminal.

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Who gives a shite. War is hell and it takes the devil to win one

Look how well America has done since the 60s trying to fight war “fair”

When the war started, most people thought it would last a week. A skirmish here and there. The thought was that if actual warfare broke out, one side or both sides would say "that's enough, you called our bluff". Nobody thought it would last as long and be as deadly and as destructive as it was. If they had that knowledge, I don't think the South secedes, and even if they did, I think the North lets them go.

Regarding Sherman, he didn't have to do what he did to win the war. It was pure vindication. He could have taken all those cities and towns in his march to the sea without burning everything in sight, and still won the war.

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When the war started, most people thought it would last a week. A skirmish here and there. The thought was that if actual warfare broke out, one side or both sides would say "that's enough, you called our bluff". Nobody thought it would last as long and be as deadly and as destructive as it was. If they had that knowledge, I don't think the South secedes, and even if they did, I think the North lets them go.

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A lesson that went unlearned in Europe just shy of half a century later

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I propose getting a M-4 Medium Tank...

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I have proposed the exact same - and further, that it should be filled with concrete to make it indestructible and immoveable.

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Regarding Sherman, he didn't have to do what he did to win the war. It was pure vindication. He could have taken all those cities and towns in his march to the sea without burning everything in sight, and still won the war.

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HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN THE FIELD, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, September 12, 1864.

JAMES M. CALHOUN, Mayor, E. E. RAWSON and S. C. Wares, representing City Council of Atlanta.

GENTLEMEN: I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta. I have read it carefully, and give full credit to your statements of the distress that will be occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities of the case, but to prepare for the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in all America. To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the rebel armies which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To defeat those armies, we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose. Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may have many years of military operations from this quarter; and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a home for families. There will be no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go. Why not go now, when all the arrangements are completed for the transfer,—instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will renew the scenes of the past months. Of course, I do not apprehend any such thing at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will be here until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot impart to you what we propose to do, but I assert that our military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.

You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.

We don't want your negroes, or your horses, or your houses, or your lands, or any thing you have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and, if it involves the destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it.

You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better. I repeat then that, by the original compact of Government, the United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never been relinquished and never will be; that the South began war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., etc., long before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed thousands upon thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you; you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect and early success.

But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.

Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them, in more quiet places, proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and peace once more to settle over your old homes at Atlanta. Yours in haste,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General commanding.

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But all it takes is an unbiased understanding of History to realize that your statement is incorrect.

What put us on the path to a stronger federal government is our Founding Fathers' rejection of the original Articles of Confederation which were seen as creating a central government that was too weak.

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It continues to amaze me that people just gloss over this fact when promoting states rights as a legitimate reason for the war. If we had not abandoned the articles of confederation, we wouldn't have even had a country to break in half in 1861.

We've had a strong federal government since 1789.

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I'm not an LSU fan, why should I give two shits about some sideshow fun fact about Sherman and LSU's history? In fact, you might want to hush about that fact and keep it on the downlow, yo. People will hate your school even more.

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See, that's exactly what we're proud of. Every time LSU wins the SEC it's like Sherman burning a path to Atlanta all over again.

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One can simultaneously recognize the evils of slavery and also realize that the Union victory was the primary factor in the death of the American republic and the reason why our current federal government is a centralized leviathan which seeks to control and regulate every facet of our lives.

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